James Vowles points finger at Fernando Alonso over Sainz-Piastri clash
Oscar Piastri was not impressed with Carlos Sainz in Hungary
Williams team principal James Vowles highlighted the involvement of Fernando Alonso in how Carlos Sainz made contact with Oscar Piastri in the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Alonso and Sainz were battling away towards the back of the pack when Piastri, then the race leader, approached behind.
Fernando Alonso ‘should have conceded earlier’ before Sainz-Piastri contact
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Coming out of Turn 2, Sainz believes Piastri was in his blind spot as the McLaren driver searched for a way past, but ultimately made contact, which earned the Williams driver a five-second penalty.
Piastri was furious in the aftermath of the incident, with his race engineer, Tom Stallard, having placed blame in Sainz’s direction for losing the lead to Lando Norris soon afterwards.
A number of drivers reported the FIA’s automated system for blue-flagging drivers to be lapped was not working properly on Sunday, leaving drivers to go by their mirrors, marshals blue flagging from the side of the circuit, and the FIA’s blue light boards – albeit without the driver number showing, to indicate who should move aside.
With Sainz and Alonso having been battling over position, the Aston Martin driver’s pass on Sainz meant his fellow Spaniard was due to move aside for Piastri, as the race leader.
However, with Alonso having been in range first, Williams team principal Vowles believes the order between the two should have been the other way around to begin with.
With hindsight, though, he also acknowledged the different approach Williams should have taken in the moment to ensure its driver would not get in the way.
“If I focus particularly on Carlos and Fernando, who was the car behind Oscar, Fernando had a number of blue flashing lights all the way through, and in fact remained in position in front of Oscar,” he told the latest ‘Vowles Verdict’ with Williams.
“You have to do it in order, so Fernando should have conceded that position earlier. What happened is he didn’t, but took an opportunity to go up the inside of Carlos into Turn 1.
“So, at that stage, Carlos then became the car behind and, when you do, you have a number of marshal posts to therefore give up position.
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“However, on the run down to Turn 2, Carlos is back ahead now. So the car behind is Fernando again with the blue light boards, and again into the next corner, Fernando went up the inside of Carlos, which put Carlos as the car behind, and you’ll see that on the video.
“As Carlos came back on to rejoin, that’s when Oscar went on the inside. So what complicated it is, fundamentally, without the automated system, cars were staying in place for perhaps longer than they should have done.
“Second to that, you have to know which one is exactly the car behind at the right moment. Now, what we did do is communicate to Carlos into Turn 1 that Oscar was coming.
“What we should have done, because ultimately we’re still racing for a non-point scoring position, is indicate to Carlos that that was happening at the point where he was alongside Fernando on the run down to Turn 2.
“That’s what I mean by it’s our culpability, but I hope what you can see from this was it wasn’t an attempt to go and block Oscar or otherwise.
“Actually, in this circumstance, there was another car that was the car behind, and that should have probably conceded before we did.”
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